Another Global Shipping question - Antiques

[sarahsplace100]

Much of what I will be purchasing are antiques, over 100 years old. (American Pottery - easily verifiable as to age)  I should be paying 5% GST, plus shipping on items over 100 years old, to Canada,, correct? 

Pitney Bowes estimate on the auction page doesn't seem to distinguish this fact, and is wanting payment, including duty, tax and other fee's. Substantially higher than what I should actually pay.

Is my only recourse to contact the seller to see if they would cut out Pitney Bowes and direct ship to me? 

Thanks for any info.

[femmefan1946]

Not sure about duty free, but we pay sales tax on any import over $20CDN (~$USD).

Some charity shops (and a few for-profit shops) will include the tax in the selling price, but will still remit the correct amount to Revenue Canada,if they want to stay in business and not jail.

Hmm- I couldn't find anything from CSDA itself about duty on antiques and I've heard both that they are and they are not dutiable, but this seems reasonably believable.

https://blog.pcb.ca/2013/02/importing-antiques-into-canada-duty-free/3634

The big thing here is that YOUR SELLER had to put the correct HS code on the label BEFORE they ship it to Pitney Bowes.

And just in case, PB/GST does not return refused or returned items to the seller. They either dump them or sell them to liquidators.

So if you want the item, you have to pay the duty and SALES TAX .

[ypdc_dennis]

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@sarahsplace100 wrote:

Much of what I will be purchasing are antiques, over 100 years old. (American Pottery - easily verifiable as to age)  I should be paying 5% GST, plus shipping on items over 100 years old, to Canada,, correct? 

Pitney Bowes estimate on the auction page doesn't seem to distinguish this fact, and is wanting payment, including duty, tax and other fee's. Substantially higher than what I should actually pay.

Is my only recourse to contact the seller to see if they would cut out Pitney Bowes and direct ship to me? 

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ebay likes fiddling around with how the "import fees" are displayed.

GSP usually includes cost to ship from the PB clearing center to you, PB's handling fee, duty (if any), and sales tax (GST/HST/PST/QST).

...

You can politely ask the seller if they are willing to modify the listing to exclude Canada from GSP and add a direct to Canada option.  Many sellers do not even know they are enrolled with GSP, as eBay will automatically add listings that match eBay's criteria to GSP.

GSP help file: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

There is a section near the end called To remove a single active listing from the Global Shipping Program that shows the seller how to modify a listing.

-..-

[marnotom!]

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@sarahsplace100 wrote:

Pitney Bowes estimate on the auction page doesn't seem to distinguish this fact, and is wanting payment, including duty, tax and other fee's. Substantially higher than what I should actually pay.

Is my only recourse to contact the seller to see if they would cut out Pitney Bowes and direct ship to me? 

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The import charges for a GSP item are calculated by a bot based on the information provided by the seller on the item's category and details provided in the "item specifics" portion of the listing.  If the seller hasn't provided accurate information--or worse--no information at all on aspects of the item that may affect how it's handled as an import by the receiving country (and using the item description section doesn't count), it's going to take a "worse case scenario" approach and either base the import charges on the maximum possible or else it may do so on a category average.  In short, garbage in, garbage out.

So if your seller hasn't provided details on the item in the "item specifics" section of the listing and/or listed the item in the appropriate category, getting the seller to fix that might change how the Pitney Bowes bot calculates the import charges owing.

Keep in mind that if the seller hasn't provided the PB bot much info to work with, they may not even be aware that the GSP has been automatically applied to their listing by eBay and you may need to do a lot of hand-holding to reassure the seller as well as educate them on how best to prepare the item for export without it getting damaged.

[afantiques]

I do not know how this compares to Canadian practice but in the UK there is a reduced rate of import VAT for antiques, and in some countries the import rate for antiques is zero.

BUT (big but) the seller or sender must include with the import customs declaration a document from a recognised professional antique specialist (usually taken to be a member of one of the recognised and reputable antique trade organisations, ) to the effect that the item is of a certain age and is in fact an antique.

It is not possible to just say 'It's antique' and get the discount rate because if that worked everyone would be shipping antique iPads.

The GSP has no way of dealing with such a situation, and no knowledge of or use  for any special paperwork, so will always charge the routine tax rate.

It is not likely to be a problem if all you buy is ceramics, but the GSP has been known to seize and dispose of antique items because they contained CITES prohibited materials.(Buyers do get refunded). It is alledged that ceramics with a uranium yellow glaze have also fallen foul of a ban on radioactive materials, as have uranium glass, despite the microscopic amounnt of uranium involved.

Better to stick with  dealers competent  enough to handle their own shipping.